LONDON — A small European nation has stepped up where the Republican establishment, Beltway pundits and more than a dozen presidential candidates have failed.
Scotland is kicking Donald Trump’s butt.
Last week Scotland’s leader, Nicola Sturgeon, stripped Trump of his long-held ambassadorial role for the country of his ancestors. Today, her predecessor publicly denounced him as a “loser.”
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Insults are unlikely to ruffle the most vulgar candidate in presidential history, but the Scots are also hitting Trump where it hurts: his business empire.
The real estate mogul’s aggressive battle to enforce control over great swathes of the Scottish coastline were finally vanquished in Britain’s Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Trump had claimed that an eco-friendly, offshore wind farm, which is expected to produce enough electricity to power 68,000 homes every year, would destroy his plans for a $1 billion golf complex that he said would be home to the world’s most spectacular course.
He sued the Scottish government saying he would rip out the investment that was supposed to create thousands of jobs if he didn’t get his way over the 11 planned wind turbines.
After years of legal battles, the case went all the way to the Supreme Court in London, where Trump’s claims were thrown out.
Alex Salmond, who stepped down as Scotland’s first minister this year, said the whole nation had been revolted by the leading candidate in the Republican primary race.
“His behavior and comments are unlikely to attract the votes of many Mexican Americans or Muslim Americans,” Salmond said. “Given his treatment of Scotland, Scots Americans are likely to join the ever growing list of people alienated by Trump.”
Salmond described Trump as a “three-time loser,” who has already besmirched one of the country’s proudest institutions.
It emerged this week that Turnberry, a century-old golf course, would no longer be considered as a host for the Open Championship, arguably golf’s greatest event, simply because Trump is now the owner. (Naturally, he has renamed the course, which was first laid out in 1902, Trump Turnberry.)
“He has condemned Turnberry, one of the outstanding golf courses on the planet, and the scene of two of the greatest Open Championships since the war, to Open Championship oblivion,” said Salmond.
Sore about their defeat in court, Trump’s crack media team were unlikely to suffer Salmond’s intervention in silence.
Sure enough, a spokesman shot back: “Does anyone care what this man thinks? He’s a has-been and totally irrelevant.
“He should go back to doing what he does best—unveiling pompous portraits of himself that pander to his already overinflated ego.”
The Trump organization had plenty more fire to direct at the most powerful legal minds in Britain. After the unanimous ruling by five Supreme Court justices, they released another damning statement:
“History will judge those involved unfavorably and the outcome demonstrates the foolish, small-minded and parochial mentality which dominates the current Scottish Government’s dangerous experiment with wind energy.”
That same “small-minded” Scottish government fired Trump from his role as a “GlobalScot” ambassador after he proposed banning all Muslims from entering the United States.
“Recent remarks have shown he is no longer fit to be a business ambassador for Scotland,” a Scottish government spokesman said.
Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University agreed, revoking Trump’s honorary degree.
Trump did not. “The UK politicians should be thanking me instead of pandering to political correctness”, he said. “I have done so much for Scotland.”
After a tit-for-tat petition to ban Donald Trump from entering Britain was signed by more than half a million people, Prime Minister David Cameron was asked in Parliament if he agreed that Trump should not be allowed in England or Scotland.
“I think his remarks are divisive, stupid, and wrong,” said Cameron. “I think if he came to visit our country I think he’d unite us all against him.”
